Category: Branding

They’re based in Atlanta… The email marketing company Mailchimp, which today is announcing a complete rebrand, could have easily given up the quirkiness that defined its branding as a young company the way many other giants have. Instead, with the help of branding agency Collins, Mailchimp is doubling down. It’s keeping its logo-cum-mascot Freddie the … Continue reading Mailchimp Rebrand

I often get the question from clients of why I mostly recommend having your own website on WordPress or a self-hosted platform in the age of Facebook. As companies who built their businesses and traffic flow on the back of Facebook over the years have found out, that can be a very precarious decision. Audience … Continue reading Owning your own platform is important, and valuable

Interesting thoughts here from the NY Times CEO on how they are shifting focus in relationship to Facebook and Google due to the smartphone revolution … much of this applies to how nonprofits and churches can do better marketing as well: It’s about how you think about the product and what you’re trying to do … Continue reading Nonprofits, the smartphone, Facebook, and Google

Good advice to consider here, particularly for nonprofits and churches on slimmer marketing budgets looking to make the most impact possible on social media… What about content that doesn’t show a clear logo? What about companies with unbranded or non-logoed products? We’ve seen that a huge percentage of the content shared and posted on Pinterest … Continue reading Your logo and Instagram content

Longevity and repetition are two of the hardest to use tools in a marketer’s toolbox, but also the most effective. via Marketing at millennials won’t save your tired brand | The Drum There are definitely some points in this post that I disagree with (importance of having a “famous” brand and working towards that being a … Continue reading What Does Your Brand Do?

Logo Rank is an AI system that understands logo design. It’s trained on a million+ logo images to give you tips and ideas. It can also be used to see if your designer took inspiration from stock icons. via Logo Rank – Check your logo design with deep learning Little more “machine learning” than … Continue reading Check Your Logo Against AI

My partner Merianna was preaching at a nearby church last month and she needed a time estimate for the drive that Sunday morning. We googled the church and got the address. While on the results page, I noticed their “Hours” stated they were closed. It was a Sunday. That felt… peculiar. It wasn’t intentional, … Continue reading The Importance of Getting Your Details Correct

Earlier this year, my good friend Thomas (a PhD candidate and officiant of my marriage) wrote a very timely post about his decision to blog despite some who advised otherwise… Why I Blog — Thomas J. Whitley: “Though many academics have resisted the move toward ‘branding,’ it has long been a part of academia. One’s … Continue reading Becoming Entreprenuerial In Your Profession

‘”We believe the new bars will inspire people to not only quickly identify their own symptoms and satisfy their hunger, but give them a new, fun way to call-out friends and family on who they become when they’re hungry, too,” says Snickers brand director Allison Miazga-Bedrick.” Source: Snickers Swaps Out Its Brand Name for Hunger … Continue reading Small Business and Church Unwillingness to Be Personal

The foundation of any brand is its logo. As such, with every redesign, a brand risks alienating its core following, who then flock to social media to broadcast their disapproval. But why do logo redesigns upset us so much? It all boils down to identity. People with strong connections to a brand tend to react … Continue reading Logo redesigns that missed the mark

“After 127 years under the ownership of the not-for-profit National Geographic Society, one of the world’s best-known media brands will be handed over to 21st Century Fox.” Source: Rupert Murdoch Is Buying National Geographic – BuzzFeed News This magazine was my childhood and expanded my worldview beyond Mullins, SC. Ugh. Continue reading I just threw up in my mouth.

“Other than not quite looking like him, his voice being different, and his inability to cook the world’s best chicken, we thought Norm was the perfect choice to play the Real Colonel,” said KFC US CMO Kevin Hochman in a statement. “I think the fans will agree.” Source: Norm Macdonald Is the ‘Real’ Colonel Sanders … Continue reading The ‘Real’ Colonel Sanders and Bad Branding

If you have a US startup called X and you don’t have x.com, you should probably change your name. The reason is not just that people can’t find you. For companies with mobile apps, especially, having the right domain name is not as critical as it used to be for getting users. The problem with … Continue reading You Need the .com of Your Name

Ladies and Gentlemen: Your Marco Rubio for President logo. A photo posted by Ed O’Keefe (@edatpost) on Apr 13, 2015 at 12:50pm PDT //platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js Kerning. You probably haven’t heard of it, but oh does it matter. It’s why you hire professionals to make your logo. Like myself. *cough* And don’t get me started on why … Continue reading Kerning Matters

My old (well he’s not old, but our friendship is) friend Thomas wrote a great piece in response to a question about why he still blogs in 2015 given that we have tools such as Facebook, Twitter etc to make our points. What he says is not only applicable to academics, but also to non-profits, … Continue reading Who Do You Say I Am?